


More Alike Than You Think

by 911xtarlos



Series: Harringrove Ficlets [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Fluff, Gay Billy Hargrove, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Neil Hargrove Being an Asshole, Soft Steve Harrington, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 07:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20170642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/911xtarlos/pseuds/911xtarlos
Summary: Instances where Steve and Billy find out they're more alike than they thought.





	More Alike Than You Think

It was one AM and Steve was still awake, sat at the Byers kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee that had long gone cold.

The whole group had gathered for “family dinner” including Robin and Billy, who had only come to drop Max off but had somehow been roped into staying by Joyce. 

The rest of the house had gone to sleep hours ago, the boys piled in Will’s room, Nancy and Jonathan in his room, and Steve and Billy on the living room couches. Luckily the living room was far enough from the kitchen that he didn’t have to worry about waking him.

“Steve? You okay?”

Max was behind him, leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I just saw the light on in here. I thought it might be Billy.”

“Billy?” He turned just enough to catch a glance of Billy’s sleeping figure.

“Yeah. He has trouble sleeping sometimes, nightmares. If I wake up, sometimes I’ll go sit with him. Most of the time he tells me to go back to bed and not worry about him.”

“Nightmares are rough,” Steve agreed.

“You have them too?”

“Yeah sometimes. I guess me and Billy are more alike than we thought huh?”

“Yeah I guess so.”

“Go back to sleep kid. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Goodnight Steve.”

“Goodnight.”

****

All of the party had gathered at Steve’s house, their usual hangout spot since it was so big and empty, for pizza and movie night. They had set up a giant pillow fort in the middle of the living room and they were all playing D&D, with the expection of El who just liked to watch.

When Billy had dropped Max off, Steve had invited him to stay saying, “We have plenty of room and plenty of food. It would also be nice to have someone over the age of fifteen here for once.”

Billy had agreed, albeit reluctantly, and was now seated next to Steve on the couch drinking beer they had stolen from his dad’s stash and forbidden the kids to even look at.

When the kids were engrossed in their movie, Steve nudged Billy’s thigh with his knee (he hadn’t realized they were sitting so close together) and motioned for him to follow.

Steve led Billy out to the back porch and offered him a pack of cigarettes. Billy took one and dug in his own pocket for a lighter. He lit his own cigarette before reaching over to light Steve’s. 

They stood in silence for a while, taking slow drags before Steve spoke up.

“Nancy’s friend Barb died in that pool. I can hardly look at the damn thing anymore.”

“Damn Harrington. I thought I had it rough.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nevemind. It’s nothing. Just that upside down shit. It gets to you.”

“Yeah it does.”

“Do you get them too? You know, the nightmares or whatever?”

“Yeah I do. Sometimes I’m back in the tunnels or I just see Barb, dying in my fucking backyard.”

“That’s some fucked up shit right there.”

“What do you see?”

“Different stuff. The mind flayer, sometimes I dream that I’m trapped. I’m stuck in this dark room, I can’t move, I can’t even scream.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. Guess we’re more alike than we thought.”

**** 

It was one AM and yet again, Steve was awake. This time he was on his couch, sitting in silence, holding a lukewarm cup of coffee. Tonight it was Barb, being dragged in his pool, and never coming out again.

The knock on his door startled him, and he got upt to open it, confused as to who would be at his door at ass o’clock in the morning.

When he opened the door, he was greeted by a bloody Billy Hargrove. He looked like he’d gotten in a fight with a wood chipper and lost. His clothes were torn, his hair was matted with blood. His nose was probably broken, but Steve couldn’t be sure because of the sheer ammount of blood on his face. It was dripping into his eyes from the cut above his brow. It was all over his mouth from both his nose and his busted lip.

“I’m sorry Harington, I didn’t know where else to go and-”

“Hey it’s fine. Come inside, we’ll clean you up. What the hell happened to you?”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay. Come on, can you walk upstairs?”

Billy had to lean heavily on Steve but he made it up to Steve’s en suite bathroom. Steve closed the lid on the toilet and led him to sit down. He dug around under the sink for the first-aid kit and soaked a wash cloth in warm water.

He carefully wiped the half-dried blood from Billy’s battered face, apologizing when Billy winced.

When he had the blood cleaned off, he bandaged up the cut ad used another wash cloth to get as much of the blood out of his hair as he could.

“I’ll be right back.”

Steve went into his room and grabbed some clean clothes for Billy to wear.

Billy changed pants on his own fine, but needed Steve’s help with the shirt because he couldn’t lift his arms all the way up. When Steve got his shirt off of him, he stopped to stare at him. His torso was covered in old scars and new cuts, and bruises in varying shades of black, blue and yellow.

“See something you like,” Billy tried to joke, but it fell flat.

Steve didn’t respond, but helped Billy put the shirt on. When he was dressed, Steve led Billy to sit on his bed, not willing to make him walk down the stairs again, and sat next to him.

“Billy, please tell me what happened. You’re covered in brusies and scars and I know you didn’t get them all from fights. A lot of them look deliberate.”

Billy pursed his lips and looked away.

“It was my fault.”

“How?”

“I mouthed off. I was trying to keep Max out of trouble and got too confident. he knocked me down a peg or two.”

“Your dad hit you?”

Billy nodded slowly.

“Billy-”

The blonde looked up at him with tears in his eyes.

“Come here.”

Steve pulled Billy into him, burrying his face in his neck. Billy’s arms slowly came to wrap around him and his head rested on top of Steve’s.

“Your safe here,” he murmured against warm skin. “He can’t hurt you here.”

Those words made Billy choke out a sob.

Steve stayed there, wrapped around the other boy, until his tears stopped.

He pulled back and rested his forehead against Billy’s.

“I’m sorry,” Billy whispered.

“For what?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Steve pulled away and led Billy to lay down.

“Get some sleep okay?”

“Wait, Steve?”

“Yeah?”

Billy leaned up and pressed his lips to Steve’s softly. He pulled back, breath caught in his throat.

Steve pulled him back for a longer, deeper kiss before helping him settle back down on the bed.

He reached over to hold Billy’s hand and said, “I guess we’re more alike than we thought.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another Harringrove drabble. At least I think, what exactly constitues a drabble?
> 
> Anyway I've been very inspired lately so here you go.
> 
> Make sure to leave comments and kudos if that's something you like to do and check out my tumblr. I'm always taking requests so if there's something you want me to write let me know!
> 
> Click [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/strxngehxrringrove) to check out my blog.


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